Nepal Mission Organizes Event in New York About Women Empowerment

खसोखास

The Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN has organized a side event entitled ‘Empowering Women through Social Protection: A Case of Nepal’ in the margins of the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) at the UN Headquarters.

Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen Tham Maya Thapa was present during the event. In her opening remarks, she said that Nepal attaches great importance to the work of CSW, adding that the Constitution of Nepal has enshrined social security as the fundamental right.

Panelists of the event included Senior Policy Advisor for Rule of Law, Justice and Security at the UN-Women Dr. Monjurul Kabir, social entrepreneur Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar, New York-based Jeweler and Artist Arpana Rayamajhi, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizen Rudra Devi Sharma, and Vice-Chair of Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Bandana Rana.

The panelists shared their diverse range of perspectives on the importance of social protection system. Dr. Kabir highlighted the importance of ensuring social protection through legal provisions so that change in the political system or economic crisis do not deprive the disadvantaged groups of the social protection schemes. Similarly, Dr. Pariyar said that rather than distributing cash to marginalized communities there should be a holistic approach to address their needs.

While Ms. Rayamajhi shared her personal story on the role of support system for successful startups, another panelist Ms. Sharma gave a comprehensive picture of social protection schemes in Nepal and the Government’s initiatives, policies, and programmes for the empowerment of women and girls. Likewise, Ms. Rana shared her perspective on inter-linkages among Sustainable Development Goals, social protection, and CEDAW. She also highlighted the importance of quality, accessible service, enabling environment, valuing domestic unpaid care to uplift the status of women.

Ambassador Rai, the Permanent Representative, welcomed all the participants to the event and also summed up the discussions into four concrete points: the importance of constitutional and legal provisions, adequate resources, capacity, and focused approach. The event was moderated by Mudita Bajracharya, First Secretary at the Mission. The Event was participated by representatives of Permanent Missions and CSW delegations of different countries, the civil society dedicated to women’s issues, among others.